Iran
The scale of the damage caused by the 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Khoy, northwestern Iran on January 29, 2023. Photo: IRNA
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Iran’s northwestern city of Khoy on late Saturday killed three people and injured over 800, state media reported.
An earthquake struck the city of Khoy in West Azerbaijan province at 9:44 pm on Saturday night, IRNA said, adding that the quake caused chaos in many areas of the province “especially the city of Urmia.”
“The earthquake has left 816 injured and three dead,” state media cited West Azerbaijan governor Mohammed Sadegh Motamadian as saying.
The governor added that 70 villages on the outskirts of Khoy were damaged by the quake.
Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi traveled to Khoy after the earthquake to observe the situation and provide assistance for the victims, IRNA said, adding that camps were set up to accommodate the displaced and piles of relief were distributed.
Iran regularly experiences earthquakes and seismic activity as it sits atop several major tectonic plates.
At least one person was killed when a set of twin quakes hit Iran’s Hormozgan province in November 2021.
Iran’s deadliest-ever earthquake was a 7.4-magnitude tremor that struck the country in 1990, killing 40,000 people in its north and leaving around half a million homeless.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment